Topic: Email annoyances. (Read 689 times)
I agree with you. It's a nuisance when a company has an email on their website which they don't check often. I believe the reason phone calls are picked up right away is that the phone rings and there is a sense of immediacy. There is a customer on the other side of the line right at the moment the phone rings. With email, you can answer in 1 minute, and it'll be alright. You'd get away with answering in 10 minutes. Or an hour. Maybe at the end of the day when you're feeling less lazy. Or perhaps tomorrow. It's not like the customer is going to hang up. Or at least that's what I think enters the mind of some people. Personally I try my best to answer emails ASAP. If I get an email while I'm checking my phone or inbox, I'll answer it right away. I'm only human though; I still need to sleep. And sleep tends to take up a third or a half or a day or so. Time zones are important too. But it's unreasonable to have someone wait more than a day or two. I agree.
Up to this.. I had a great read.. 
As a tech dude, I prefer to use e-mail rather than phone. I realize not everyone else has the same view on these matters...
However, I'm of the opinion that if a business does provide their e-mail on their web page or otherwise, then they should monitor and respond to any received e-mails with the same amount of attention and precision as they would attend to a phone call.
Failure to do so, but at the same time always answering the phone means that they're looking at e-mail as something less serious. I'm not always present to answer the phone, and in fact I don't like the phone very much. For instance, when you carry a smart phone with you, you're location tracked at all times. I don't like that. In addition, why on earth should I obey to getting out of the zone in whatever I'm doing, just because somebody wants to talk to me. Seldom have I ever had a conversation on the phone that couldn't rather have been done over e-mail. Now, if I have a phone meeting, or a video chat, that's another issue altogether, as it's scheduled and it does have an agenda.
To me, when someone does not answer my e-mail, what they're saying to me is that they don't give a shit about my inquiry.
Most IT-companies and e-commerce companies are quick at answering e-mails, but non tech-companies largely sucks at this. In the events were a company sucks at answering e-mail but readily answers any phone call, I honestly think they should abandon using e-mail altogether.
The annoyance lies in the fact that when some people don't answer the e-mail you either have to call them to notify them about an issue, or you have to go have a meeting with them, which again is a lot of wasted time and expenses mostly.
Even more annoying is the issue of non e-mail answers when there's dedicated staff designated to this very task. And a lot of companies have statements like: Every e-mail is answered within 24 hours during business days, and then you might not even get an answer like forever...
E-mails are great in the sense that they can be short, to the point, and asynchronous, and you also avoid the chit chat, some people are very determined to keep you on the phone with no regard for all the other things you need to do.
Yeah, and another annoyance is answers, typically from government agencies that's so late, that you'd even forgotten you contacted them in the first place. And when that answer basically says they cannot answer, and you have to ask another agency, which you already asked, and pointed to the agency you just got the response from, then life just makes perfect sense, the stars align, and you feel like you've found the true meaning of life.
/rant
However, I'm of the opinion that if a business does provide their e-mail on their web page or otherwise, then they should monitor and respond to any received e-mails with the same amount of attention and precision as they would attend to a phone call.
Failure to do so, but at the same time always answering the phone means that they're looking at e-mail as something less serious. I'm not always present to answer the phone, and in fact I don't like the phone very much. For instance, when you carry a smart phone with you, you're location tracked at all times. I don't like that. In addition, why on earth should I obey to getting out of the zone in whatever I'm doing, just because somebody wants to talk to me. Seldom have I ever had a conversation on the phone that couldn't rather have been done over e-mail. Now, if I have a phone meeting, or a video chat, that's another issue altogether, as it's scheduled and it does have an agenda.
To me, when someone does not answer my e-mail, what they're saying to me is that they don't give a shit about my inquiry.
Most IT-companies and e-commerce companies are quick at answering e-mails, but non tech-companies largely sucks at this. In the events were a company sucks at answering e-mail but readily answers any phone call, I honestly think they should abandon using e-mail altogether.
The annoyance lies in the fact that when some people don't answer the e-mail you either have to call them to notify them about an issue, or you have to go have a meeting with them, which again is a lot of wasted time and expenses mostly.
Even more annoying is the issue of non e-mail answers when there's dedicated staff designated to this very task. And a lot of companies have statements like: Every e-mail is answered within 24 hours during business days, and then you might not even get an answer like forever...
E-mails are great in the sense that they can be short, to the point, and asynchronous, and you also avoid the chit chat, some people are very determined to keep you on the phone with no regard for all the other things you need to do.
Yeah, and another annoyance is answers, typically from government agencies that's so late, that you'd even forgotten you contacted them in the first place. And when that answer basically says they cannot answer, and you have to ask another agency, which you already asked, and pointed to the agency you just got the response from, then life just makes perfect sense, the stars align, and you feel like you've found the true meaning of life.
/rant
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